Moynihan Says Attacks on Israel Aimed at All Democracies

Sen. Daniel P. Moynihan (D.NY), in his first address at a Jewish meeting since assuming office, condemned the Soviet Union and the Third World for their assault on Israel as part of a concerted campaign against world democracy. He spoke at the National Inaugural Conference for the 1977 Israel Bond campaign which met here yesterday to adopt a program for the sale of Israel Bonds to speed Israel’s economic recovery and restore the momentum of its economic development. The conference at the Washington Hilton Hotel was attended by more than 150 top leaders from the United States and Canada.

Describing Israel as a “surrogate of democracy.” Moynihan warned that if something were to happen to Israel. Europe and then the United States would suffer the same fate. “We must come to the aid of Israel if the democratic tradition is not to die,” he said. He called for the support of Israel Bonds, asserting that there could be no more “pressing issue” or “more important enterprise” for those concerned with the preservation of the State of Israel.

DINITZ SEES 1977 DECISIVE

Israel’s Ambassador to the U.S. Simcha Dinitz observed at the meeting that 1977 could be “the year of our greatest opportunity or the year of the greatest danger for Israel–a year when we may move to peace or to confrontation.” Israel is ready to negotiate and will never avoid any arena which may lead to peace. Dinitz declared. But he noted that Geneva would be either “the stage for the premiere or the grand finale of the peace process; it could not be the theater where a peace settlement would materialize.” He sharply criticized the democracies for their “reluctance to stick their necks out for democracy in the Middle East.”

Sam Rothberg, general chairman of the worldwide Israel Bond campaign, who presided, emphasized that “the economy may be the weak link in Israel’s chain of defense in 1977 when crucial decisions may be made affecting the future of Israel and its hopes for security and peace.”